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Monthly Archives: September 2014

Knoebels officially broke ground today on their first major steel roller coaster in ten years since Whirlwind: Impulse. Site follower and friend, Pat Kemper was at the ceremony and sent me these photos from the press conference and groundbreaking that followed.

Knoebels also posted a 14 minute video of the complete ceremony as well. Their current timetable on Impulse’s construction.

Like the other coasters that were built at the park, there was a contractor list for the ride.

Dick Knoebel was present and mentioned that Impulse will be the biggest undertaking for the park since Phoenix was built.

Buddy Knoebel brought up an interesting statistic in that only 2% of family businesses make it to the 4th generation of the family.

Rick Knoebel, part of the 4th generation of the family, said that he did a lot of traveling with his brother and cousin to find a ride that was a perfect fit for Knoebels.

Another 4th generation Kneobel, Trevor, gave a timeline on the construction of Impulse. He said that the coaster could be open as early as opening day 2015 in April.

Group photo before the shoveling.

…and construction has begun!

With two world-class wooden coasters, a great indoor coaster, the top new ride for 2014, and now a new thrilling steel coaster, Knoebels looks like it will have an even better coaster line-up for 2015.

Looks like they want to get a head start before the big digging starts. lol

Phall Phunfest is on Saturday, which is sure to be awesome! Thanks again to Pat Kemper for taking the photos!

While in the area on Wednesday, I managed to take a trip by Knoebels and check on the progress of Impulse. There really wasn’t much except for survey stakes, a construction fence, and a flat dirt lot. Word has it that ground will be broken on Monday for actual construction to start. I’ll be back up soon for another update before the end of the season.

It’s hard to miss where Impulse is going to be.

The pond for the Bumper Boats is long gone and leveled.

The only thing present are a bunch of these survey stakes.

Boat Tag is long gone as well. Here’s a history tidbit, it used to be at Dorney back in the early 90s near where Hydra is today.

Here’s a panorama of the construction site.

As much as it looks like the off-season at the park, there is still a month left. It must be the changing of the leaves on the trees.

The Whip is receiving some TLC during it’s week off (the park is closed this-coming weekend, by the way).

I have a feeling that Impulse is really going to fit in nicely in this part of the park.

Third week into construction and the land looks flat and possibly ready for the preparation for the foundation for Laff Trakk. That’s pretty much all can be said, but I guess I could say that the tree they’ve kept looks nice. Oh well!

Well it’s time to cover the construction of a brand-new ride coming to Hersheypark. Laff Trakk will be a 50 foot-tall indoor spinning roller coaster with glow effects built by Maurer Söhne. The building housing the coaster will be 75 feet tall (almost as tall as Lightning Racer) and located where the Miniature Train, Granny Bugs, and Pony Parade are located.
Construction has started the day after Labor Day with the buildings and rides being removed, the paths being ripped up, and construction walls put up.

This small kiddie area was added in 1997 when the Ferris Wheel, and Whip were added. Miniature Train has been a ride that has been used seasonally for Christmas Candylane. Ganny Bugs came from Music Box Way and Pony Parade came from the Pioneer Frontier area.

The Midway Tent was added in 1999 as part of the Hersheypark Fair expansion.

Since then, it has been used as a catering area and entertainment venue through the years.

The building was also home to Tiger’s Tail and Crazy Climber; two inflatable attractions.

Construction immediately began right after Labor Day with land clearing.

The sides of the tent were removed and a job trailer were added inside.

A construction wall has gone up from the FunSlides to Whip.

The entrance to the FunSlides were moved to the former exit near Wildcat.

Much of the area was bulldozed and jack-hammered.

The path to the Midway Tent is still there for now.

Pony Parade’s footprint is broken up and ready to shipped off.

The sign has been added to the gate.

Here’s a panorama.

The removal of the trees opens up the area a little bit more.

The buildings have been relocated to Racer’s former queue to possibly be reused again next year.

The railings have also been placed over here as well.

As a temporary filler, Tiny Tracks has been brought out of storage and Granny Bugs have been moved to inside the Boardwalk until the end of Hersheypark in the Dark.

Utilizing the tube queue, Tiny Tracks is back and will be calling Coastline Plunge home for a few weeks.

It has a smaller layout than when it was in Founder’s Circle, but it should be a decent filler to take the place of Miniature Train.

On the plus side, it opens up the hill-less shortcut to get to Lightning Racer through the Boardwalk.

Granny Bugs is over between Sandcastle Cove and Bayside Pier set up like it would be for Christmas Candylane. The path is closed off here so walking over to Rita’s is out of thee question.